The present invention is related to the following inventions which are assigned to the same assignee as the present invention:
xe2x80x9cSystem and Method for Limiting Access to a Book Cardxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,346, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cApparatus and Method for Storing and Presenting Testxe2x80x9d having Ser. No. 08/572,451, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cMethod and Electronic Book for Creating a Plurality of Versions of a Bookxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,485, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cAn Electronic Book Diary and Methodxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,602, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Inhibiting the Operation of an Electronic Device During take-Off and Landing of an Aircraft, having Ser. No. 08/572,603, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cMethod and System for Inhibiting the Operation of an Electronic Device During Take-Off and Landing of an Aircraftxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08,572,484, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Abridging Textxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,834, filed on Dec. 6, 1995.
xe2x80x9cA Method of Substituting Names in an Electronic Bookxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,480, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cSystem and Method of Authoring Tools for an Electronic Bookxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,358, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cSystem and Method for an Automatic Library for a Plurality of Book carsxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,482, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and Method of Selecting a Primary Font and a Primary Size for Displaying Text therewithxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,407, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and Graphical User Interface for Selecting a Book to read Therewithxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,406, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and Graphical User Interface to Provide Control Thereofxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,403, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and Method of Storing at Lest One Book in an Internal Machine-Readable Storage Mediumxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,593, filed on Dec. 6, 1995.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and Method of Annotatin Thereforxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,367, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and a Method of Displaying a Relative Position of a Current Page of a Book Thereforxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,373, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cMethod and System for Encoding a Book for reading Using an Electronic Bookxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,468, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and Method of Displaying an Animated Page Turn Thereforxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,405, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and Method of Controlling a Rate of Information Displayed Therebyxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,372, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cReusable Housing and Memory Card Thereforxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,413, filed on Dec. 16, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No.5,661,635.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and Method of Displaying at Least One Reading Metric Thereforxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,842, filed on Dec. 16, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,793.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and Method of Creating a Personal Log of Reading Activity Thereforxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,456, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book Having Highlighting Featurexe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,469 filed on Dec. 16, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,748.
xe2x80x9cElectronic Book and Method of Capturing and Storing a Quote Thereinxe2x80x9d, having Ser. No. 08/572,601, filed on Dec. 16, 1995.
The subject matter of the above-identified related inventions are hereby incorporated by reference into the disclosure of this invention.
The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for displaying textual information and, in particular, to their use in conjunction with hand-held electronic reading devices.
Various types of hand-held electronic reading devices have been proposed to electronically display textual information for reading by a user. A typical hand-held electronic reading device includes a display device to display the textual information and a user interface which allows a user to navigate through the textual information and access various features of the electronic reading device. The display device and the user interface are incorporated in a hand-held housing to facilitate portability of the electronic reading device.
Some prior art devices include displays that require the user to scan across a line and sequentially read the words. This kind of display mimics that of the printed page of words, a direct consequence of the paradigm created by the Gutenberg""s printing press. The intent of many of the existing devices is to emulate the scanning experience associated with reading words upon a printed page. Although some devices enable the user to increment the lines, one line at a time or several lines at a time or to continuously scroll the lines of words, the reader still has the same scanning experience associated with reading words upon a printed page. In this case the reader scans the first line typically from left to right with his eyes and then re-positions his eyes to scan the second line. The use of these devices and their requirement for constant scanning tends to tire the eye muscles.
Other prior art devices scroll the text of a message from left to right to eliminate the scanning motion of the eyes. This form of scrolling, can adversely affect the ability of the user to comprehend the message""s meaning.
Thus there is a need for an improved method and device which can communicate messages whose length is not limited by the physical dimensions of the display screen and whose comprehension is not seriously affected by the scrolling techniques employed in existing devices.